Mexican Street Tacos
by Chungah
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Easy, quick, authentic carne asada street tacos you can make right at home, topped with onion, cilantro and lime! Ready in just 20 minutes!
Featured Comment
Now that I’ve moved to the brisk, cold winter of Chicago, I can’t stop thinking about the taco trucks in Los Angeles serving authentic Mexican street tacos packed with carne asada, onion, cilantro, and lime. But until I can get back to sunny California, here is my rendition of my favorite street tacos that I miss so dearly. It’s a super quick recipe using a simple marinade for your skirt steak – it just needs 1 hour of marinating before you throw it onto a hot skillet. From there, you can top off your tacos with diced onion, cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice. Simple, easy and just perfect.
Why You’ll Love This Mexican Street Taco Recipe
- Make-ahead recipe. This is an easy peasy one skillet dinner with a simple 1 to 4 hour marinade, great for prepping ahead of time for those super busy weeknights.
- Favorited street tacos. Mexican street tacos are a crowd-favorite for the entire family, and now you can easily make these tacos right at home with easy-to-find ingredients and pantry staples. No fancy equipment or specialty ingredients needed here!
- Freezer-friendly. The carne asada meat can easily be frozen, great for batch cooking, meal prep or saving leftovers. This makes it even easier to whip up tacos using fresh tortilla and your favorite toppings, great for Taco Tuesdays!
What Are Mexican Street Tacos?
A Mexican street taco is a small taco on a corn tortilla with meats like carne asada, carnitas, or al pastor. They’re part of Mexico’s street food culture and are usually sold from carts or taco trucks, topped simply with onion, cilantro, and lime.
How to make mexican street tacos
- Marinate. Combine all the marinade ingredients in a large bowl with the diced skirt steak, letting it marinate for at least 1 hour. The marinade will help tenderize the steak (making it less chewy) and ensure juicy, caramelized goodness once cooked.
- Cook the steak. Cook the steak pieces in a hot cast iron skillet over medium high heat until browned and caramelized.
- Serve. Serve warm in tortillas, topped with onion, cilantro and lime (or your favorite toppings). If freezing, freeze the leftover carne asada prior to assembling in tacos.
What to Serve with Mexican Street Tacos
- Mexican Rice
- Mexican Corn Dip
- Creamy Chorizo Queso Dip
- Red and Green Chicken Enchiladas
- Southwestern Chopped Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing
Tools For This Recipe
Large cast iron skillet
Mexican Street Tacos: Frequently Asked Questions
Skirt steak is the most preferred option as it is a thin cut of meat, cooks very quickly, and has great flavor from its high fat content and marbling (making it much more tender and flavorful than leaner cuts such as flank steak).
Flank steak is a great alternative. Just be sure to slice it thinly against the grain after cooking so it stays tender. Sirloin steak is another solid option if you prefer something a little leaner.
Yes! We have a recipe for that here.
Two things can cause tough steak here. First, make sure you’re cutting the steak into 1/2-inch pieces before marinating, not after cooking. Smaller pieces cook faster and more evenly in the skillet. Second, always slice against the grain. Look for the direction the muscle fibers run, then cut perpendicular to them. That short cut through the fibers makes every bite tender instead of chewy.
Yes, you can! We have a recipe for that here.
Leftover steak can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Yes! The leftover steak, prior to assembling in tacos, can keep in the freezer for at least 2 months, perfect for quick taco nights throughout the week!
Mexican Street Tacos
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
- 2 tablespoons canola oil, divided
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 ½ pounds skirt steak, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 12 mini corn or flour tortillas, warmed
- ¾ cup diced red onion
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine soy sauce, lime juice, 1 tablespoon canola oil, garlic, chili powder, cumin and oregano.
- In a gallon size Ziploc bag or large bowl, combine soy sauce mixture and steak; marinate for at least 1 hour up to 4 hours, turning the bag occasionally.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Add steak and marinade, and cook, stirring often, until steak has browned and marinade has reduced, about 5-6 minutes, or until desired doneness.
- Serve steak in tortillas, topped with onion, cilantro and lime.
Equipment
Notes
- Cut the skirt steak before marinating. Dice the skirt steak into 1/2-inch pieces prior to marinating, not after cooking. This will allow the marinade to coat each piece evenly, yielding a much better sear in the skillet. This is also key to getting that favorited caramelized crust on each piece!
- Avoid marinating for too long. The high acid content from the lime juice can break down the muscle fibers if marinated for too long. Marinate the steak for 1 to 4 hours.
- Use a cast iron skillet. A cast iron skillet is the same tool used in many street food stalls in Mexico. It retains heat much better than nonstick pans or even a grill grate, yielding a better sear on the meat without steaming it and giving the steak that authentic sear for Mexican street tacos.
- Use flour or corn tortillas. Mexican street tacos are traditionally made with corn tortillas but small flour or corn tortillas can be used depending on personal preference.
- Double up the tortilla. Street tacos are typically served on two tortillas, known as la copia or “the copy”. This practice helps keep the filling together, and if the first tortilla breaks, the back up tortilla can be used for the rest of the filling.
- Serve with your favorite toppings. Serve with diced onion, cilantro, cotija cheese, salsa verde, guacamole or salsa. Cotija cheese is a classic Mexican ingredient that adds salty, authentic flavor to any street taco recipe.
- Freeze before assembling in tacos. Let the leftover carne asada cool completely; portion into plastic freezer bags in individual servings, squeezing out any excess air before sealing. Label, date and freeze up to 2 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, reheating over low heat, stirring occasionally, until heated through.
Did you make this recipe?
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Freaking delicious marinade. I will always use this for steak tacos from now on. I followed the marinade recipe exactly but topped with pico de gallo and added chipotle mayo to the tortillas before filling with meat. Best tacos I’ve ever made at home.
I don’t have any chili powder, is their any other substitute?
Anne, not really. Chile powder has a very distinctive taste. The only substitute would be if you have taco seasoning, but that will have added salt so you’d want to lessen the amount of soy sauce.
I liked this marinade. Good basic bones. I also noticed the watery consistency so I added about a tbsp ( maybe less) of corn starch to thicken it, worked like a charm. I also enjoy Cumin so I upped it about 1/2 tsp. Use Hot Mexican Chili Powder. Next time I think I’ll add a dash of cinnamon for depth. Thanks!
The cornstarch is a good idea…I think I’ll add it to the marinade to help tenderize, too.
You can make your own chili powder with all the other things your probably do have. Just look it up online
Absolutely delicious! This will replace my go-to taco recipe!
I use a dried hatch chili powder in all my texmex cooking.
My go to Carne Asada recipe. Super easy and very flavorful.
This was delicious! I made it last weekend (less than a week ago) and I’m making it again tonight! Thank you so much for this recipe. The only change I made was that we topped these off with a little Queso Fresco cheese. This will be a regular part of our weekly meal plan.
This is my families go to recipe!
It’s so easy and delicious, I’m not ashamed to say we make this at least once a week.
Very good and flavorful! Goes great with chicken as well. Only thing is I would add extra salt. I used regular soy sauce and it could’ve used a bit extra.
Made these for my family and everyone loved it! Super easy, steak was extra tender and flavorful. Can’t wait to make it again! Thank you!
This recipe has become a staple in our household. We make it almost weekly. Love it!
I use ground beef instead and it turned out great. My family loved it ! Must try!
This is an amazing recipe. It is easy and incredibly delicious. I made this 3 times so far (just for myself for dinner and the tacos didn’t even touch a plate bc I ate all of it standing up in the kitchen)
I add some salsa verde and avocado to my taco and it’s perfect. I will be using this recipe to trick my quarantine bf into thinking that I am a keeper. Thanks
I had some leftover steak and was in the mood for tacos. Fortunately I stumbled across this recipe and was thoroughly impressed. My wife and I both gobbled up multiple tacos and will save this recipe for future dinners.
Easy recipe to make and it tastes really good.
Got tired of normal ground beef tacos, there’s no going back now
I typically don’t eat skirt steak because it is more difficult to chew… but this was AMAZING! The meat was perfectly seasoned and super tender. My boyfriend ate it like candy! Definitely would recommend this recipe!!!
I cannot tell you how great these were. Doubled the recipe and used both steak and chicken. Nothing left. One of the females in the group had 7. Everybody had at least 4, and we served with rice, beans, and watermelon. Thank you.
I have not made this but have eaten a lot of great street tacos. This recipe will work and I will be making it soon.
Thank you!
I have to try this recipe, but I can tell by the ingredients and reviews it must be AMAZING! I’ll definitely make these for my dad’s 66th birthday in a couple of weeks! Thanks!
We made these last night for our son’s 17th birthday and Oh…my…goodness….it was DELICIOUS!!!! We did buy the meat from a great butcher and the quality was very good so that might be something to consider. I marinated the meat for 5 hours, brought it to almost room temp before frying in a cast iron pan briefly. I can’t wait to make this again! YUM! Thank you for this keeper recipe!
YUM!
Thanks for your nice recipe. Its really awesome.
I am in my 50’s and don’t leave reviews. I have been searching for the perfect steak taco. Never thought I would find it but this is it. My initial thought was the soy sauce would over power but it didn’t. If you love Mexican food try these tacos you won’t be disappointed.